topic title: printer woes...
Posts: 57
Subito Piano
Joined: 20 Oct 2007
#1
Hi! Troubles printing on a network -- first of all, i guess that an HP LaserJet 1018 is simply a nightmare for Linux. That's OK, i have several HP LaserJet 1100's and they are great.

Everything in the school is part of the same network -- with both Windows and Linux computers. The library has fourantiX units and the librarians WinXP box. There are a few other antiX units scattered throughout the school; also there are many Mepis units, mostly dual-boot. In the library, the four antiX boxes seem to see any printers installed on the Mepis machines. To enable printing in the library, I tried to set the machines up to print to a LJ1100 printer attached to the librarian's WinXP machine. AntiX saw the printer but would not print for love or money. (It IS shared on the Windows machine.) I gave up and installed another LJ1100 printer directly on an antiX machine and it works fine from the parallel printer port. Then I tried to set up a second antiX machine to use that same printer on the first antiX unit -- no go. It saw the printer but would not print to it, not through the test button nor through AbiWord. In other words, i cannot print to a networked computer, period, whether it's networked to XP through SMB or through antiX-only networking. It can see it but it just won't print.

I read something
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/viewtopic.php?t=308&highlight=share+printer"
linktext was:"here"
====================================
about fusemb but i don't know how to set it up. All my Mepis 3.4.3 and 7.0 machines automatically see each other and print nicely. The antiX machines also see the Mepis printers automatically.

Any thoughts? My dream is to keep ONE printer on the librarian's WinXP computer and have all four antiX machines in the library print to it. If i can't have that, then at least i need the four antiX machines to all print to a common printer. (Well, my REAL dream is to get everyone to ditch Windoze and use Linux, but that's another story... __{{emoticon}}__ )

Oh - all the drivers in the anitX machines are identical, although there's a mix of antiX versions there -- 6.5 straight, 6.5 upgraded, and 7.01 upgraded. I also tried to use the cups configuration tool (i.e.,
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://localhost:631"
linktext was:"http://localhost:631"
====================================
) but i haven't a clue as to how to find a hostname for the printer either on the antiX machine or the XP machine. This is two hours just today on this stuff...

You can tell i am still a noob after all these years...!! Any help is appreciated.
Posts: 1,520
eriefisher
Joined: 07 Oct 2007
#2
When you use the cups interface(localhost:631) you can use http or ipp. If you use http all you need is the address of the win box and enter it. The Linux box should find it ok. fusesmb is for mounting a remote share locally when you don't use a desktop enviroment like kde or gnome which supports this through the file manager.

eriefisher
Posts: 57
Subito Piano
Joined: 20 Oct 2007
#3
Hmm -- it's DHCP. I mean, new http address every time it's rebooted. Or am i displaying my ignorance??

Also - the Admin>Printer config program DID find it on the WinXP, but the printer kept stopping. Maybe you are saying that i need to use cups?
Posts: 53
acidburned
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
#4
try using cups and also make sure its working properly.
Posts: 1,520
eriefisher
Joined: 07 Oct 2007
#5
Subito Piano wrote:Hmm -- it's DHCP. I mean, new http address every time it's rebooted. Or am i displaying my ignorance??
If you have to you could set the box with the printer to a static ip but you might find the address never changes anyway. You could also use the host name of the box--http://xpbox:631--and it should find it.

eriefisher
Posts: 57
Subito Piano
Joined: 20 Oct 2007
#6
__{{emoticon}}__ __{{emoticon}}__ __{{emoticon}}__ SOLVED!!! __{{emoticon}}__ __{{emoticon}}__ __{{emoticon}}__

ONE unit"happened" to work -- it had SAMBA installed! I didn't know it wasn't in the package list. Installing SAMBA seems to solve everything and i can install a printer thru ADMIN>PRINTING (probably thru Cups as well). So two units are up and running; as for the others, i installed Samba but they didn't work...since it was time to go, i'll tackle it tomorrow; it's probably one of those packages"recommended" by Samba that's missing.

Thanks again for your help!